Thursday, September 30, 2010

Soggy, soggy day














There's no other way to describe the park today. Very few people. Even the waterfowl seemed to be trying to take cover. We didn't stay long at the park.

I got a comment asking for pictures of the Gaspe. by the way, there should be an accent mark over the e, but I haven't figured out how to do that. Anyway, here's the sad story of pictures.

I took many, many pictures of our vacation. I had the camera on the way home. Unfortunately, by the time we finished our 2 day drive home, I had lost my camera.

The pitiful part is that isn't the first time. We went on a month long trip a few years back. The walking fish in Pymatuning, Pennsylvania, friends in Ohio, relatives in Wisconsin, friends in Minnesota, canoeing in the Boundary waters, back through Canada to Quebec. Took hundreds of pictures. Lost the camera. I should probably see a therapist about this bad habit. Anyway, I have ordered another camera, but it is on backorder. My husband did take some pictures of the Gaspe. He is not as scrupulous about documenting as I am, but at least he doesn't lose the camera.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Pretty sure I'm really back.

It's still "September, and I;m back to the blog. Memories of the Gaspe Peninsula are fading a little. Did I mention that it proclaims itself, in typically modest Canadian fashion, as the third most beautiful spot in the world? Wonder what the first 2 are. Been busy this month, staying up late and sleeping late, and neglecting the park, sorry to say.

My daughter got married on Sept. 19. She did the planning, but I helped, especially with the crafty stuff: making a flower girl basket, 36 jars of homemade chocolate sauce for the out-of-town-guests gift bags, huge paper flowers, the wedding shower, lots of emotional support and reassurance about everything will be great, etc. etc., and more social activities than we usually engage in. I know everyone says it, but she was an incredibly beautiful bride, it was a remarkably beautiful wedding, and they are a great couple. I don't really believe in the idea of "soul mates," but if there is such a thing, they seem to be it. Lots of out-of-town guests to visit with. My niece and nephew came in from Milwaukee with their two daughters. The 4 year old was an unbelievably adorable flower girl. She had a basket with glitter confetti to sprinkle down the aisle, and afterwards she stood in the receiving line with her basket, making sure that every single guest got a piece of confetti.

So now, the festivities are over and I'm back to the park. Enjoying every minute. JJ has been doing substantially less running without the two of us, so we made sure she did a lot of it today. Ber and I go in different directions around the meadow (Peninsula today), and call JJ so she runs back and forth. Using those border collie herding instincts to the best advantage! Then throwing sticks into the lake for her to fetch and cool off.

The swan family is back in the big lake, happily eating all kinds of greenery. They let me get quite close, and the cygnets each have a few white feathers. The lone singleton was on the other side of the lake. Saw Ed and Anne, who think that the singleton is actually the grandfather. The two singletons who were here a few months ago were from the last swan hatching, coming back to their birthplace to visit for a while, as swans do. Anyway, Ed and Anne said they saw Grandpa a few days ago giving flying lessons to the cygnets, while Mama and Papa went off on their own for a while.

Also saw Tony from FIDO, who says there's talk of allowing more leash-free areas for dogs, since the dogs will make the geese unwelcome and keep the numbers down. Apparently they had RENTED dogs scaring away the geese in Central Park some time ago. Why rent when there are lots of Brooklyn dogs ready, willing and able to do the job?

It's good to be back.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Coming home

We've been back from vacation since Saturday night, but I'm having trouble getting back into the spirit of my blog. Probably because the vacation was so wonderful. we were at the Gaspe Peninsula, a part of southern Quebec that's about 1,000 miles from here and feels that far away from everywhere else. Canada has many parks, wilderness preserves, and large forests available to the public. The wilderness preserves are called fauniques, and have cabins on them. Each cabin sits on its very own lake - the very large lakes can have more than one. I believe they used to be available to the government employees only, but now they are available to anyone. No electricity, but indoor plumbing and propane - they have refrigerators, stoves, lights, all from the propane. Each cabin comes with a couple of boats plus a dock. Trout fishing in the lakes. Mackerel fishing in the oceans. Fresh mackerel tastes NOTHING like the canned stuff we're used to. We went with another family - our friends S and H, with their son M. H is a fisherman - didn't catch trout, but went for and got a lot of mackerel. They've had a dry summer there, and the lake waters were a bit too warm for ta lot of trout.

The area is very isolated and beautiful. The Appalachian mountains end here, just before the ocean, and they are stunningly beautiful. Great hiking, wildlife spotting (although we didn't see any actual moose). There's one main road that goes all around la Gaspesie, as they call it - a fantastic scenic route with vies of ocean, incredible rock formations, herons, cormorants, gannets and seagulls. Didn't see any Canada gees, by the way. The place is officially bilingual, though there are "English" areas and "French" areas. Acadia, or l'acadie, is what the French speakers call it. There seems to be some controversy. People fly the Canadian flag or the Acadian flag (blue fleur-de-lis on white) to show their preferences. So nice to see a different set of political division than the one I am so fed up with back here. The people were all incredibly friendly and appreciative that I tried to speak some French, though their accents are so strong that I had a hard time understanding theirs.

Anyway, the whole trip was wonderful, de-stressing, peaceful... words are insufficient. Now we're back and, I hate to say it, our park seems so...small. There's the usual problems of a bit too much garbage fishing line, etc., and the walking is not nearly as interesting as our hikes were, but the swan family looks quite healthy. the cygnets are still gray but as large as the adults. One was spreading his wings, so I assume that's a male, since papa swan is always going that. Only saw 1 of the singletons, but we didn't look everywhere.